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The Columbia County commission is in favor of seeing the area’s combined universities grow, but not GRU.

The Commission passed a resolution its Tuesday meeting requesting that the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia reconsider the name of the consolidated Augusta State and Georgia Health Sciences University. The Board of Regents recently voted to name the school Georgia Regents University. The decision has been met with strong opposition.

The Columbia County Commission approved the rezoning of land for a new cell tower, but not its requested height.

During their regular meeting Tuesday night, commissioners approved rezoning a plot of land at 5030 High Meadow Drive from residential and special to special to allow the construction of the tower to service areas of Columbia Road and William Few Parkway.

TowerCom, the Jacksonville-based company building the tower, also had requested a height variance so it could build a 195-foot tower on the site. Current Columbia County codes limit towers to 110 feet.

Raydin Hollbrooks, age 3, was pronounced dead at Doctor's Hospital at 3:45 p.m., said Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins. An autopsy done Wednesday at the GBI crime lab in Augusta revealed that Raydin drowned, he said.

For the first time since Army Sgt. 1st Class Sean Git­tens ended up paralyzed after serving in Iraq, he will be able to move freely through his home.

“He won’t be confined to the living room anymore,” his wife, Sharon Gittens, said Saturday at a ceremony where the national organization Homes for Our Troops presented a new home in Appling to the family.

Sharon Gittens said she had a “U-Haul truck in reserve” and would start moving as soon as the ceremony ended.

Turnout generally has been light in Columbia County runoff voting Tuesday morning, with some scattered confusion over exactly who can vote, and where.

Voters who live in the appropriate districts can choose between Congressional District 12 Republican candidates Rick Allen and Lee Anderson, and School Board District 1 candidates Carolyn Chase and David Dekle.

A bicyclist was transported to an area hospital Monday after striking the back of an SUV at a stop sign in Martinez.

Dwight Earl Baggett, 50, was taken by ambulance to the Medical College of Georgia Hospital with head trauma. His injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, said Columbia County sheriff’s Deputy Scott Curry.

Baggett, who is homeless, was riding his bicycle at about 5:30 p.m. when he hit the back of a Saturn Vue that was stopped at Old Petersburg Road and New Petersburg Drive, Curry said.